Documentary films/videos on incarceration

The following is an attempt at a comprehensive listing of documentary films/videos that include a significant treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, broken up into several broad categories. The list includes films that were made available to the general public, whether through being aired on television, made available on video cassettes or DVDs, or released online. In many cases, a link leads to a separate article on each film that includes more detailed information.

The first three categories below are self-explanatory.

The "Biographical Films on Former Inmates (or Families) or Other Key Figures in Incarceration" category includes films on individuals or families that either focus primarily on the World War II years and their after-effects or are on people who are best known for their wartime activities. Biographical films in which the incarceration is mentioned but is not a central focus, are included in the "Documentaries that Include the Incarceration" category.

The "How We Remember the Incarceration" category is a catch-all for films that explore the after-effects of incarceration in some way and includes films that draw comparisons to the aftermath of 9/11, films on the redress movement, and films on camp pilgrimages, among other subtopics.

The "Japanese American Military Service during World War II" category includes any film primarily focused on that topic, including those that make little or no mention of the concentration camps and biographical films that focus on military service more than on the incarceration.

The "Documentaries that Include the Incarceration" category include films whose primary focus is on another topic, but that includes a significant mention of the wartime incarceration in telling its story.

Ganbare Don't Give Up! Directed by Tom Coffman for the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, 1994. 15 minutes. [Video on the Japanese American World War II experience in Hawai'i that is part of the core exhibition at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i.]

The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps 1942–1945. Directed by Taiji Miyagawa, 1993. 32 minutes. [On the 1992 exhibition of the same name, featuring its curator, Karin Higa.]

The Way Ahead. Produced by the War Relocation Authority, 1943. [Government film shown to Japanese Americans in the concentration camps, encoring them to "resettle" to the Midwest of East.]

East L.A. Marine: The Untold True Story of Guy Gabaldon. Written, produced and directed by Steven Jay Rubin, 2006. 77 minutes. [Gabaldon was a Mexican American who was adopted by a Japanese American family and who became war hero in the Pacific while his family was incarcerated.]

A Flicker in Eternity. Directed by Ann Kaneko & Sharon Yamato, 2012. 25 minutes. [Based on the camp diary of Stanley Hayami, a young man in camp who is later killed in Europe as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.]

From a Silk Cocoon. Directed by Emery Clay III, Stephen Holsapple, and Satsuki Ina, 2005. 57 minutes. [On the incarceration experience of the Ina family, who end up as renunciants at post-segregation Tule Lake.]

December 7/September 11. Produced by Ann Brandman & Paul Nishijima for Third World Newsreel. 2001. 11 minutes.

A Divided Community. Directed by Momo Yashima, 2012. 77 minutes. [Tells the story of three draft resisters.]

Double Solitaire. Directed by Corey Ohama, 1997. 20 minutes. [Looks at the impact of the incarceration on two of the filmmaker's uncles.]

Dreams Finally Realized: The Untold Stories of California Nisei Forced Out of Higher Education. Produced by California Nisei College Diploma Project, Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, 2011. 82 minutes.

Emi. Directed by Frank Nesbitt & Michael Toshiyuki Ono, 1979. 29 minutes. [On a Nisei woman's return to the site of her incarceration and to her prewar home for the first time since settling in the East Coast after the war.]

Enemy Alien. Produced and directed by Konrad Aderer, 2011. 82 minutes. [Explores the parallels between the contemporary imprisonment of a human rights activist and the Japanese American incarceration.]

History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige. Directed by Rea Tajiri. 1992. 32 minutes.

Interactions. Produced by the Japanese American National Museum with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center in conjunction with the Alhambra School District, 2000. 33 minutes.

Just Beyond Hope. Directed by Pia Massie, 2012. 65 minutes. [Tells the war incarceration stories of three women: artist Miné Okubo; Margaret Sage, a social worker at the Tashme camp in Canada; and photographer Dorothea Lange.]

Letters from Camp. Directed by Frank Chi for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, 2016. 3 minutes. [Muslim American children and Japanese American former wartime incarcerees read aloud letters written from the concentration camps by young Japanese Americans.]

Manzanar: Never Again. Produced and directed by Roger Sherman, 2008. 14 minutes. [Short film shot at a Manzanar Pilgrimage.]

Meeting at Tule Lake. Produced by Tule Lake Committee, 1994. 33 minutes. [On former Tule Lake inmates who return to the site of the camp.]

Memories of the Camps. Produced and directed by Mark Mohr for KABC-TV, 1992. 60 minutes. [Documentary produced by Los Angeles TV station to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incarceration.]

Moving Walls. Written, produced and directed by Sharon Yamato, 2017. 25 minutes. [On the enduring impact of Heart Mountain on both the local population and on Japanese Americans, focusing on the fate of surviving barracks from that camp.]

National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism: Dedication Ceremony, November 9, 2000, Washington D.C. Produced by Bridge Media, 2001. 60 minutes.

National Japanese American Memorial: Groundbreaking Ceremony, October 1999. Produced by Bridge Media, 2000. 52 minutes.

The National Japanese American Memorial, Washington D.C. Produced by National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, 2004.

Biography Hawai’i: Koji Ariyoshi. Produced and directed by Joy-Chong Stannard, 2005. 57 minutes. [Biography of the Hawai'i activist and labor leader that treats his stint in Manzanar only briefly.]

California's Gold with Huell Howser: Japanese American Home Movies. Written and produced by Huell Howser, 1997. 58 minutes. [Episode of the public television series that features home movie collection at the Japanese American National Museum. The entire film Something Strong Within (see above) is included within this program.]

The Caretaker. Directed by Theo Rigby and Kate McLean, 2012. 7 minutes. [About the bond between an elderly Nisei woman and her undocumented immigrant caretaker.]

Changing Season: On the Masumoto Family Farm. Directed by Jim Choi, 2015. 57 minutes. [A year in the life of an organic peach farm in Del Rey, California run by author David Mas Masumoto and his daughter Nikiko. Includes a visit to Gila River, where the family was incarcerated during World War II, by father and daughter.]

Chrysanthemums and Salt. Directed by Dianne Fukami for KCSM-TV, San Mateo, California, 1994. 27 minutes. [On Japanese Americans in San Mateo.]

Crossroads: Boyle Heights. Directed by Akira Boch and Joseph "Nuke" Montalvo for the Japanese American National Museum, 2002. 23 minutes. [Companion piece to the exhibition, Boyle Heights: The Power of Place.]

Drawing the Line: Art, Design, Activism. Produced by the Japanese American National Museum, 2011. 43 minutes. [Compilation of video profiles of artists featured in exhibition on postwar Japanese American artists.]

Freeway City. Directed by Max Votolato, 2015. 83 minues. [On Gardena, California, a Los Angeles suburb with a large Japanese American population.]

From a Different Shore: An American Identity. Produced and directed by Jeremy Cooper, 1994. 50 minutes. [British produced documentary on the history and current status of Japanese Americans that focuses on three Los Angeles Nikkei families.]

From Bullets to Ballots. Directed by Robert A. Nakamura for the Japanese American National Museum, 1997. 24 minutes. [On World War II veterans and the Democratic Party in Hawaii after WW II.]

Great Grandfather's Drum. Directed by Cal Lewin, 2011. 57 minutes. [On the Fukumoto family of Maui and Maui Taiko.]

Island Roots. Written, produced, and directed by Lucy Ostrander for IslandWood, 2007. 14 minutes. [On Filipino Americans on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Includes a section on Filipino American farm hands who managed Japanese American farms during the World War II removal and incarceration.]

Issei, Nisei, Sansei. Written and produced by Douglas Wakefield for WNJT, Trenton, N.J., 1972. 27 minutes [On the Japanese American community in Seabrook, New Jersey.]

Mendez v. Westminster: For All the Children. Directed by Sandra Robbie. 27 minutes. [On the key California school desegregation case that was instigated when the Mendez family leased a Westminster farm from a Japanese American family that had been forcibly removed.]

Nikkei Style. Written, produced, and directed by Steven Okazaki, 2003. 29 minutes. [Personal essay by the Sansei filmmaker on being Japanese American that covers the family's incarceration history.]

Our American Family: The Furutas. Produced by Legacy Media, LLC for Mississippi Public Broadcasting, 2015. 30 minutes. [On the Furuta family of Wintersburg, California, including their wartime incarceration at Poston.]

Top of Their Game. Directed by John Esaki for the Japanese American National Museum, 2000. 60 minutes. [Companion piece to the exhibition More Than a Game: Sport in the Japanese American Community profiles notable Japanese American athletes.]

Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story. Directed by Bruce Alan Johnson & Christine Toy Johnson, 2008. 86 minutes. [On a 1940s Nisei basketball star who played on two national championship college teams for the New York Knicks.]

This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior.